Judges To Hear Case Of Race Determining Voting District Shape

TALLAHASSEE - — A three-judge panel today will be asked to throw out an Orlando-area congressional voting district on grounds that it was crafted mainly to elect a black legislator.

The legal challenge focuses on U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown's horseshoe-shaped 3rd District, which includes parts of Orlando, Daytona Beach, Gainesville and Jacksonville.

But the lawsuit has the potential of sparking a protracted political battle over congressional district lines. It may also jeopardize the future of the first black Floridians elected to Congress since just after the Civil War.

Along with Brown, U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and Carrie Meek, D-Miami, will be represented by attorneys at today's hearing. The three were all elected after new district lines were drawn in 1992 and became the first Florida blacks sent to Congress since 1875.

Leading the lawsuit is Jacksonville radio talk show host Andy Johnson, who was defeated by Brown in 1992.

"I think the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a pretty clear guideline on what role race can play in drawing district lines," said Rod Sullivan, Johnson's attorney.

In June, the high court ruled 5-4 that race cannot be the predominant factor when legislators draw a voting district. Ruling in a Georgia case, the justices said such districts violate white voters' equal protection rights.

Johnson says Brown's district was designed virtually to assure the election of a black legislator. Almost 51 percent of the voters are black - a level reached after the district was drawn through 14 counties and parts of 39 municipalities.

One of the judges who will preside over today's hearing, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, once likened the district to "something lifted from a Rorschach test."

If the judges agree with Johnson, the court is likely to throw congressional redistricting back into the laps of state legislators.

With a Democratic-led House and Republican Senate, redistricting could prove even more contentious than in 1992, when the Legislature fought for six months over the issue.

That year, after state legislators failed to reach agreement on a congressional plan, Florida's districts were drawn by a three-judge federal panel. Two of those three judges will hear today's challenge.